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The Dark Hand Of Treachery
The Darkling Lords break their peace treaty and begin their capture of the other Visionaries. Synopsis With her cover blown by the Bearer of Knowledge, Virulina attacks Arzon. She is joined by the other Darkling Lords, who head off Arzon’s attempt to escape in his Eagle totem form. Musing on his need of metal for shackles, Darkstorm orders Reekon and Mortdred to look for scrap. They search inside a large junkyard full of the useless remnants of technology from the Age of Science, but it soon devolves into a fight that causes them to unwittingly stumble across the long-dormant Sky Claw. The vehicle magically activates at Mortdred's touch, much to their surprise, and the two Lords take it for a test flight and realise this must be the great magic Merklynn promised them. Mortdred clumsily flies the Sky Claw back to Darkstorm’s castle and crashes it into his war room. As much impressed as he is annoyed, Darkstorm decides to take the vehicle for a flight himself, but it doesn't start up. Reekon announces that while the other Visionaries can pilot such vehicles, only he and Mortdred can activate them; the latter triumphantly declares that it means he’s still useful to Darkstorm. Mortdred and Lexor later use the Sky Claw to attack Witterquick as he is trekking back to his own kingdom. The knight successfully evades them with his new power of Light Speed, but he is ambushed outside the castle walls by Cravex (who had awaited him inside the moat) and Reekon. Witterquick then attempts to flee in his Cheetah totem form, but is overwhelmed by the Lords' numbers and captured. Up in the frozen north, Cryotek patrols outside his kingdom when he’s attacked from above by… Galadria! The two tussle flirtily before the Darkling Lords attack in the Dagger Assault. Cryotek uses his Strength power staff to fend off their attack, but it is quickly neutralized by Lexor’s Power of Invulnerability. Cryotek instructs Galadria to dive into the river beneath the ice and swim to New Valarak while he distracts the Darkling Lords before his inevitable capture. Virulina pursues Galadria in her Shark totem form but is soon rammed back out of the water by Galadria's Dolphin totem. Chewed out by Darkstorm and then mocked by the other Lords, Virulina storms off. Back at New Valarak, Ectar, Feryl and Leoric are bragging about their newly acquired magic to a group of armored guards. Galadria interrupts to inform the knights of Cryotek’s capture. Leoric, fearing the others are also in danger, consults his power staff of Wisdom for advice. The Owl of Wisdom tells him to “become one with the Circle of Light.” Confused by this, he instead opts to ready the city for a Darkling Lord attack. Although impressed by their vehicles, Leoric is amused by the Darkling Lords’ low numbers. Mortdred is catapulted onto the ramparts to demand the surrender of New Valarak. The knights refuse and catapult him right back. Darkstorm has Cindarr unleash the Beast of Destruction, which easily smashes down the city’s walls and defenses. Once Destruction runs out, Cindarr continues the assault in his gorilla totem form, which he breaks off after less than a minute upon hearing a cat meowing in distress. He reverts to his human form and digs the animal out of a pile of rubble, much to Darkstorm’s chagrin. The siege floundering, Feryl counter-attacks, but is easily captured. Leoric, Ectar and Galadria attempt to rescue him, but Cravex’s Fear power infects Galadria, causing her to hallucinate a tidal wave and panic. Trying to drive back the Darkling Lords, Leoric is overwhelmed. He throws his spent power staff to Ectar in order to keep it away from the Lords. Ectar transforms into his fox totem and flees, but is captured by one of the Sky Claw’s dragons. The captured knights are paraded in front of Darkstorm, who demands fealty. For openly refusing, Feryl is thrown into the Dagger Assault's magical dungeon, where his totem is removed. He and the others are then chucked into a castle dungeon already containing Witterquick, Arzon and Cryotek, whose hope of rescue is crushed. Meanwhile, having conquered New Valarak, Darkstorm begins to address his new citizens, who are less than pleased. To quell their dissent, he uses Decay to vastly age a vocal dissenter. He returns him to normal only after the citizens have sworn fealty to him. Back at the dungeon, Lexor taunts the imprisoned knights but Ectar drives him away with insults. Annoyed, Lexor starts turning a water valve to punish them. Oblivious to this, Leoric works out that the Owl of Wisdom was advising him to forge a stronger alliance with the other Visionaries and proposes that they form a sacred order called the Spectral Knights to combat the Darkling Lords. As they chant "May the Light shine forever", the dungeon floods as Lexor gloats. Characters In order of appearance Quotes "Quiet! Quiet! Show respect for the exalted Darkstorm, Lord of the High Valley, King of the Bleaklands, Great Pundah of the Cracked Lands, major holder of unnamed acres, sire of all he surveys, and, most recently, Mayor of New Valarak!" :— Mortdred introducing Darkstorm to his new subjects. "Power of rot, obscuring truth: what once was old, restore to youth!" :—'Darkstorm' reversing the power of his Decay staff. "No good having the power of Lightspeed if we know your destination." :— Cravex makes a very good point to Witterquick. "Why are we wasting time?! Let's go in there and crush them before I take my aggressions out on all of you!" :— Prior to the invasion of New Valarak, Cravex makes it clear he's ready to crack a few skulls…including those of his own teammates. Notes Animation and technical errors *For the second time in as many episodes, Leoric's gloves are painted as bare hands for one shot, this time while driving off the Darkling Lords. *Cravex calls for the attack on Arzon with Cindarr's voice. Additionally, Chris Latta has trouble distinguishing Cravex's voice from Darkstorm's in places, particularly during the scenes of Cryotek's capture. He ends up just using his most agitated-sounding form of Starscream's voice. Story errors *All the Visionaries know how to activate their power staffs without ever having been told the verses. However, an unspecified amount of time passes from the end of the first episode to the start of the second before the good knights not from New Valarak are seen returning to their home cities. *The Dagger Assault appears out of nowhere during the episode. The dialogue script on the DVD suggests it had a proper introduction beforehand, but this scene was omitted from the finished product. *It's unclear which dungeon Darkstorm has Leoric, Feryl, Ectar and Galadria thrown into. It's presumably his own, as the rest of the Spectral Knights are already there, but he addresses the citizenry outside as if they're from New Valarak, which he has just annexed. There's no suggestion he has additionally transported his captives to Castle Darkstorm, possibly due to time constraints. The next episode will treat the dungeon as part of Castle Darkstorm. Continuity notes *Jim Cummings takes over as the voice of the Bearer of Knowledge with this episode. *After storming off, Virulina is absent from the series until the fourth episode. *Galadria refers to her homeland of Androsia for the only time in the series. *First and only appearance of Witterquick's unnamed kingdom. *First appearance of Cryotek's kingdom of Northalia, which is not officially named as such until the eleventh episode. *First appearance of the Owl of Wisdom. *All the power staffs except Arzon's are used for the first time. *Debut of the Sky Claw and Dagger Assault. *The term "Spectral Knights" is coined by Leoric. *Darkstorm uses the reverse effect of his staff in this episode, activated by a different verse. *Get used to seeing Cryotek and Lexor's staffs cancel each other out, kids! Trivia *The recap narration mentions Leoric as being the leader of a "confederacy" of kingdoms. *The script on the Metrodome DVD release again hints at some cut scenes. **After capturing Arzon, Virulina demands his power staff as promised by Darkstorm, who reneges on the deal. Arzon then mocks her for trusting Darkstorm. **The Dagger Assault vehicle was originally to be given a proper introduction in which Reekon mentions charging Darkstorm for its use, which suggests he found it somewhere. **In the broadcast episode, Witterquick's kingdom is an unnamed random background, and no one is around to greet him upon his arrival before he is intercepted by Cravex. The script included an omitted scene of some sentries spotting his return and calling to him, during which they address him as "Prince Witterquick". **The Beast from Cindarr's Destruction staff is described therein as the "Wombat Beast". Seriously. 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